A colleague is buying a house next to a supermarket and the search has revealed the supermarket has had planning accepted on a petrol station in the carpark, the side next to the house.

He is a recent graduate so buying a house to live in and improve and sell in a few years time, so is still considering buying the house, providing the seller reduces the price.

To add a twist, the supermarket is the seller. They purchased as part of the development of the site many years ago and have rented out this and adjacent properties till this year when they were all put on sale.

Anyone have a clue how much this may affect house price?
The timing of the sale and approval of planning seem more than coincidental.

He is only tied in by a few hundred £’s at the moment so ive told him to have a realistic think about leaving it unless its a very good price.

Thanks.

Free petrol, and pasties from the shop, obvs, for as long as I was in the house would be a starting point for negotiations.

How many nectar points will buying a house get him?!?!

Free petrol, and pasties from the shop, obvs, for as long as I was in the house would be a starting point for negotiations.

that’s it, then he could get a stw approved 400bhp estate and ‘make progress’ everywhere, stopping only to eat a pasty. 😉

tbf – its better this way round as the value of the property can be established now taking into account the petrol station’s planning approval. Whilst there’s a value issue to be considered there’s also the ease of selling this on too. Consider the likely end buyer. Student town? Landlord investors? Or is it a family housing area? If the latter then you’ll struggle more to sell again.

House next to a shell garage by me has been up for sale for three years. The house is nice, big and cheap.

I wouldn’t.

Does he smoke?

even if it’s just to fix up and sell, he’ll have to find someone who does want to live there.

a nice little pub on the other hand…

My guess is the supermarket think the value of the properties is going to nose dive once the petrol station is built and that the supermarket acquired the properties in order to ensure there were no immediate neighbours to successfuly oppose planning permission for the petrol station .
I would be very reluctant to buy a house next to a petrol station.

Location. Location. Location.

Saying that, some houses near where I live were built recently directly opposite a petrol station and they all sold immediately.

On a related subject – would you RENT a house next to a petrol station?

I wouldn’t.

From experience of selling a house with an issue, if it is enough of a problem for him to consider pulling out of the sale, it will be the same if not worse when he comes to sell.

Obviously unless the price is unreal and he is happy to pass this saving on when he sells it.

Thanks all,

Further info, planning refused 2/3 times previous as space where its being built (next to the houses) had the parking spots sectioned off to reduce noise to residents. Why council passed it now who knows? Plenty of other options within 1/2 mile radius.

Location, Gosforth (north of Newcastle upon Tyne for you southeners). Some students in the area but a little bit far out for a lot of student interest. Mostly graduates as previous tenants as far as can tell.

I’d say no then. Not for value reasons, but for resale reasons.

Is it a 24 hour supermarket? Is it going to be a 24 hour petrol station?

No standard big supermarket hours, so 8am till 10pm. Apparently same for garage.

go with gut instinct. If he is nervous about buying it now, others will be nervous about buying it in future.

I would only be tempted if it was going for an absolute bargain.

Thats what we are trying to work out, whats a bargain? 5% less? 10%? tricky.

Which supermarket in Gosforth? Asda?

10% less? No bargain at all.

Saying that I am constantly astounded that people will buy houses next to busy roads, never mind petrol stations.

10% less? No bargain at all.

id agree with that too. 10% is what youd maybe try on with a private seller, who would have to buy another property too. a supermarket wont give a toss about a bigger loss than that id have thought. id only buy it if it was a silly money discount i think. but thats just me….

Mmm, benzine and diesel fumes. Nice.

And if it’s Asda at Regent’s Centre then it’ll be an automated station so 24/7/365.25

Avoid.

This one? Certainly priced to sell around there.

Next to supermarket = terrible noise util late.

Next to a petrol station = all the building noise and dust then a life of revving engines, tanker deliveries, bread crates clattering, horns sounding, idiots shouting.

No flippin’ way.

Yeah the selling on is the main thing to consider. I bought a house on a main road in a town where people really wanted a house on a side road. Even though the road wasn’t that busy really it took ages when it came to sell so it’s not just the reduced return that’s an issue. Depends on the area but if there are plenty of more appealing options it could be low down on most people’s options when buying.

Definitely avoid. Add to @globalti’s list, fumes and potential fire risk, potential ground polution. If I recall the petrol stations can be 24h (eg pay-at-pump) even if the supermarkets are not.

The supermarkets buy the houses so to ease the planning application through (as they are not going to object). They are well aware that residents will have legitimate complaints to make re noise, safety etc.

What I found really odd a few years ago in Leeds was opposition for housing to be built on the site of a petrol station – it seems the residents preferred the petrol station over houses!

The development went ahead though 🙂

And in Harrogate residents of Pannal are opposing housing being built on the site of the old Dunlopillo factory site.

People are strange.

Can’t he just buy it anyway and then complain until the petrol station gets closed down?

Seems to work for all these people buying flats in city centres close to bars and nightclubs.

Guess he can’t have a BBQ?

It all depends on the price of the property.
If i’ts crazy cheap due to the garage then why not?
The price will only go up.

If i’ts crazy cheap due to the garage then why not?

As per previous, fumes & noise.

I wouldn’t buy it for all of the above reasons. A couple of years ago we looked at a house that was behind a Tesco garage. It was quite noisy just with cars coming and going, pumps, etc. Add to that the potential for later/all night opening at some point and early morning deliveries (not just petrol – bread etc) and it could be a nightmare.

I passed on a particularly good deal local to me about 3 years ago for this reason.

Benzene, reportedly found in the air around petrol stations, particularly within a 50m radius is a carcinogen. N-hexene is also prevalent and also a health concern.

Elderly and children are particularly at risk

I suspect you may find it difficult to sell on.

£120k would be a decent price and probably accepted but I’d avoid like the plague!

The price will only go up.

As will the garden, if he has a small fireworks display.

Mmm, benzine and diesel fumes. Nice.

Is it a Dutch petrol station? 😉

You’re all just seeing the negatives. It’d be handy if you wanted to start a riot

I wonder what it would be like if you had a dogs as well? As you wouldn’t want to risk them getting out.

Guess you would have to have a strong pet rule, rather than assuming diesel be ok in the garden. As imagine people would be fuming if there were dogs running about.

Late night deliveries, 24 hr automated pumps, no staff on duty, fuel leaks and fumes,noise from car doors slamming etc etc.

Every little helps as they say, to rack up club points not to buy a house there.

what about 7.5 tonne food delivery trucks for the supermarket and then big tankers pulling up to the forecourt. Agree withe above.

Hang on. We’re missing some important information:

OP, is your colleague Alan Partridge?

OP. Have a look on the land registery/Zoopla and see what the supermarket paid for the houses. I suspect they paid up to get them to help the planning get through. Would be interesting to see. I think these houses could easily trade 20% cheaper than those further away.

As somebody who worked in a Tesco petrol station during my misbegotten uni years, you should be aware of the following:

1) Even if the supermarket and its garage isn’t 24 hours at the moment, doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. The Tesco I worked at had 7am-10pm for the main store, and 6am-midnight for the petrol station. It then changed to 24 hours for both. After a couple of years, the main store went back to its previous hours, but the garage remained 24 hours.

2) I could be wrong, but I don’t think they can have a completely unmanned petrol station, for safety reasons. They certainly couldn’t back in the day (you had to have one attendant for every 6 pumps).

3) Tanker deliveries can be very early in the morning – again, unless regulations have changed, there needs to be somebody from the garage to take delivery of the fuel in addition to the tanker driver, to ensure that there are no mistakes (which doesn’t always work, I had a colleague who didn’t pay attention and ended up costing Tesco over £65k in one day. Naughty boy.)

4) If the garage is going to have a reasonably stocked supply of snacks AND is 24 hour, there will be loud drunken bellends on a Friday and Saturday night. Or every night, if you live somewhere with a student population.